Thinkpads Forum

I would like to protect my hard drive, as well as my external USB hard drive with some kind of encryption software.

Any suggestions?

Check out TrueCrypt:

http://www.truecrypt.org/

It will do everything you asked and it's open-source . I couldn't stand Client Security Solution so I yanked it out and put Truecrypt in and haven't looked back.

could someone clarify the difference between those two?

i'm also very intrerested in encryption, though only one partition.

Here one more vote for Truecrypt.

Very handy for on an USB memory key: you do not need to install any software and it is not "tied" to a particular machine.

Since it is software based it is probably more easily "cracked" than the CSS which is hardware based. However I never felt comfortable with CSS for reasons of portability of encrypted stuff to another PC in case the first one breaks down.

Marinus

If you want full disk encryption i would recommend drivecrypt pluspack or safeguard easy. Using any of those the whole hardisk including the system files will be encrypted and you have a pre-boot authentication to be able to startup the OS. It's transparent for the user and encryption/decyption is done in the background without any manually operations from the user.
Truecrypt is pretty good, but it's not the same as full disk encryption. Using truecrypt you have to create a container file and it will be shown as another volume under my computer where you have to store the files that should be encrypted. Since the system files is not encrypted using truecrypt and the windows password of a user is pretty easy to recover it's not a good idea to use the same password for your truecrypt volume as you use for your windows login.

I guess it depend what kind of encryption you want and what kind of security that is required. If it's enough to be able to store some files that should be encrypted on a separate volume then truecrypt is pretty good. If you want everything encrypted a full disk encryption software is what you need. Using safeguard easy you can also use the fingerprint reader instead of a password for the pre-boot authentication if you got one of the newer Thinkpads (T60, X60 and the other 60 models with a fingerprint reader). It also support single sign-on if you don't want to login more then once when you startup the computer.

I currently use drivecrypt pluspack and safeguard easy on two differnt computers and i never had any problems with either of them.

Believe it or not, windows encryption is relatively strong...as long as you have a strong password.

The password can be circumvented very easily; however, your encrypted files are safe.

abu_sme wrote:Believe it or not, windows encryption is relatively strong...as long as you have a strong password.
The password can be circumvented very easily; however, your encrypted files are safe.

I'm not sure if this is a reply to my post and what you mean about windows encryption is strong, but it's still easy to recover the usernames and passwords with physical access to a windows machine. If you use a strong password it might be more time consuming, but i wouldn't rely on that security since a strong password might not be enough. People asking for encryption usually want a bit more secure system then what you get from the windows sam file. So i would still not recommend to use the same password for the encrypted files as used for windows login when using software like truecrypt.

Superego wrote:Check out TrueCrypt:

http://www.truecrypt.org/

It will do everything you asked and it's open-source . I couldn't stand Client Security Solution so I yanked it out and put Truecrypt in and haven't looked back.

I think you have to jump through a number of hoops to get TC to encrypt the entire boot partition. See the TC FAQ's. I don't think it was necessarily designed for that. TC should be able to encrypt flash drives, container files, partitions, or the entire external USB HD without a problem.

I use TC for my USB flash drives. On my desktops and laptops, I created 4GB container files (volume) and threw all my datafiles in there. So far, so good. I just have to remember to mount the TC volume before launching apps that require files on the TC volume.

I think you have to jump through a number of hoops to get TC to encrypt the entire boot partition. See the TC FAQ's. I don't think it was necessarily designed for that. TC should be able to encrypt flash drives, container files, partitions, or the entire external USB HD without a problem.

Good point...I don't know about TrueCrypt's ability to handle the boot partition. I'm with you ptantra, I use it for USB drives and large container volumes. One could implement a hard-drive and power-on password (with different passwords) to help secure bootup (granted, it's not encrypting the boot sector, but it's better than nothing) and then do some work with partitions to get most of their HDD encrypted.

The problem with Truecrypt and flash drives is that you need administrator rights to be load up the TC drivers. I LOVE truecrypts simple and efficient setup, but I can't use it on my thumbdrive because I am plugging into computers that I am usually logged into under a limited account.